If you are starting to learn how to use wxPython GUI Toolkit for Python so that you can get a jump start on developing test scripts using Python with Selenium. You have probably already installed Python, and most people use pip to make it super easy. I have outlined the steps below that are needed to get it up and running.

If you are starting to learn how to use Selenium with Python it is a great idea to download a framework so that you can get a jump start on developing test scripts using Python with Selenium. You have probably already installed Python, and most people use pip to make it super easy. I have outlined the steps below that are needed to get it up and running. This is the first time I have installed pip so you will be able to see the process from beginning to end.

Selenium 4 Alpha Download Available

If you are looking for Selenium 4 Alpha version, you can find it here. While it is not recommended to use an Alpha version for full implementation, it will let you see what new changes are there and it will help you figure out what changes you will need to make moving forward and understand the benefits,

Selenium 4 Official Release Date

As of now, there hasn’t been an announcement on when Selenium 4 will officially be released. Once we know that, we will provide the updated date.

Selenium 4 Changes

Here are some of the major changes that will happen in Selenium 4

W3C Selenium WebDriver standardization- The goal is to have Selenium WebDriver completely standardized. There are other tools and products that use WebDriver so this is a must have. Specifically mobile testing tools like Appium and iOS Driver heavily rely on it. With the change coming in Selenium 4, the test will now be able to directly communicate without using API encoding/decoding using the W3C protocol.

Selenium IDE Support for Chrome-There will be much more advanced capabilities with the new update. There will be a completely new way using a new plug-in to Selenium 4. There will also be a new CLI Runner that will leverage NodeJS and have the following capabilities:

WebDriver playback

Parallel execution

Improved Selenium Grid-While Selenium Grid is very powerful in that it allows tests to run in parallel, it is very difficult to initially setup and configure. In Selenium Grid, the hub acts like a server and it controls which tests are run. The node are the test machines where the Selenium test scripts are run. With Selenium 4, there will be improved changes related to the hub.

Improved Selenium Grid UI-Selenium 4 will have an improved user experince with a much richer UI.

Improved Debugging/Logging capability-It is important for the automated engineers to have as much detail as possible when it comes to logging and debugging of issues. Selenium 4 promises to provide that in order to accelerate resolution of script issues.

Selenium 4 Documentation– The documentation hasn’t been updated since Selenium 2.0. Documentation is critical and it is important that it is updated so that automated test engineers will not have to wonder how to use Selenium 4.

I hope this information has been helpful. I will be thrilled to see the new Selenium 4 version when it is officially released. For now, you can download Selenium 4 Alpha version from the link provided above. Once the official version is released, you will be able to download it from the SeleniumHQ website.

Step 3-Download Selenium Java Client WebDriver

The download file will come as a .zip file. You can create a folder on your computer called: C:\Selenium and extract the contents of the download there. This will contain all the needed files that will be used to configure Selenium. Once you extract the files it will look like this:

Step 4-Configure Eclipse with Selenium WebDriver

Go to the location where you extracted the zip file. It will contain an executable called eclipse.exe. You might also see a shortcut on your desktop that looks like:

Double click on the Eclipse shortcut and it will launch Eclipse. You can use the location listed, and click on Launch.

Once the screen is launched, click on Create a New Java Project

The following window will appear. For the project name you can call it myfirstproject. You can use the other defaults listed and click the Finish button.

The following window will appear. Click on the Create button.

The following screen appears:

Right click on myfirstproject and select New and then Package.

The following window will appear. Name the new package mypackage and click on the Finish button.

Right click on myfirstpackage and select New then Class

The following window will appear. Under name enter myfirstjavaclass and click the Finish button.

For the next step, right click on myfirstproject and select Properties

The JAR Selection window will appear. Go to the location where you installed the Selenium files on your computer. Mine is installed at: C:\Selenium.

Double click on the libs folder

Select all the files and click the open button.

You will see all the files you selected displayed. Click on Add External JARS.. button again

The JAR Selection window will appear. Select all files there and click on Open.

On the Properties window, click on the Apply and Close button.

You will now see the Referenced Libraries displayed.

The Selenium WebDriver configuration is finished. I hope this information has been helpful. Don’t forget when you create a new project, you will need to import these files again. In order to run your scripts you will need to determine which browsers you plan on using.

What is Selenium?

If you are in the software testing profession, one of the most often asked questions is What is Selenium? Simply put Selenium is an open sourced software testing code. It is becoming more and more popular everyday, and it is fairly easy to learn. It was created by Jason Huggins in 2004. He had a need to perform testing on a web application, so he decided to create a JavaScript based tool that could simulate manual testing activities. The original name was JavaScriptTestRunner. I am going to walk you through the process learning more about the code and the pros and cons of leveraging this capability.

Benefits

Open sourced software testing code allows anyone to use this tool with no software licensing costs

Is used to test web based applications

It has a very strong community because many software testers use it

It can be used with popular software programming languages such as Java and Python

Runs on many different browsers across different operating systems

Can easily be integrated and leveraged with other tools

Disadvantages

Only used for web based applications, so it will not support automation of mainframe or AS400 applications

Is supported by the community, so there is no central company that owns the code or provides updates

Selenium IDE: is an integrated development environment. It is the simplest component of Selenium that allows you to perform record and playback of test scripts. The Selenium IDE is a Firefox add-in that is easy to install and setup. This helps to uncover defects quickly when you want to use repetitive processes to ensure that nothing breaks when software is changed. This tool should only be used to quickly record and prototype things to make sure it is going to work. It will be helpful to know some simple concepts of HTML, JavaScript and DOM(Document Object Model) in order to have a solid foundation on how the tool works. If you need more complex scripting, then you will need to use Selenium Web Driver.

Selenium Grid: Is a tool that enables parallel test execution across multiple machines and browsers at the same time. This saves a lot of time and helps you get through large regression suites.